Flash floods sweep over 2 northern NY towns

Ellenburg, NY — Two northern New York towns were cleaning up damage Thursday from flash flooding that closed roads, damaged camping trailers and led to rescues of several people, including a camper who was swept away by a rushing river.

Two days of severe thunderstorms dumped more than 5 inches of rain by Wednesday morning on Ellenburg and an undetermined amount on Altona, neighboring towns near the Canadian border 155 miles north of Albany, the National Weather Service said.

Authorities said the north branch of the Chazy River overflowed its banks early Wednesday, sending flood waters sweeping through two privately owned campgrounds in Ellenburg. A Canadian woman staying in one of the campgrounds clung to a car before being swept away, but a firefighter jumped in the fast-moving water and saved her.

A total of 100 to 125 campsites were evacuated, according to Eric Day, director of Clinton County Emergency Services. He said there were no reports of serious injuries.

Because the flooding was on a weekday, the campgrounds were relatively uncrowded, Day said.

“It was certainly a serious incident as it was, but it could have been a lot worse had it been a weekend with folks out making use of their campgrounds,” he said.

Both campgrounds, located about a mile apart, were open Thursday. Calls to the owners weren’t immediately returned.

Jessica Neiles, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Burlington, Vt., office, said Ellenburg was hit with 2.27 inches and 3.25 inches of rain from two separate storms between Monday morning and Wednesday morning. The Ellenburg-Altona region on the northeastern edge of the Adirondacks could get more rain Thursday from scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms before a cold front moves in later in the evening, she said.

“With a thunderstorm, there could be heavy rain, but we’re not expecting anything like those other two days,” Neiles said.

The storms dumped a total of nearly 2 inches on nearby Plattsburgh, but the worst flood damage was centered in Ellenburg, home to the Ranch Side Park and Blue Haven campgrounds. At Ranch Side Park, the Canadian woman and her two granddaughters were trapped in hip-deep water next to a car Wednesday morning as rescue crews perched on a nearby vehicle tried to pull them to safety using a rope.

The granddaughters managed to grab the rope, but the older woman was swept away by the fast-moving water. Ellenburg Depot Assistant Fire Chief Eric LaValley said he had positioned himself downstream just in case and jumped in when he saw the woman in the water.

“I ran down the bank, jumped in and grabbed onto her. She got on my back, and we swam to shore,” he told the Press-Republican of Plattsburgh. “It was getting pretty hairy out there when I got to her, that’s for sure.”

Campground owner Sam Trombley identified the woman as Betty Bararechell of the Montreal area. He said she was seconds away from going over a spillway when LaValley rescued her.

“She would have been gone,” Trombley said. “We’re just lucky that no one lost a life here.”

Authorities told the newspaper that two or three other people had to be rescued after being trapped by high water.

At the height of the flooding, about two dozen roads were closed or damaged, Day said. County highway department officials said only a section of one road remained closed Thursday and that was expected to reopen later in the day.